AI will redefine the role of manager

The superstar managers of the AI era will be much more than scheduling ninjas or efficient task managers. They’ll serve as bridges between AI systems and their team members, guiding them toward more innovative and collaborative pursuits. Finally rid of repetitive and cognitively uninteresting tasks, managers will be free to unleash the full breadth of their creative skills and leadership acumen. Here’s what’s ahead for decision-makers of all seniority levels.

Before looking at the evolving role of managers, let’s consider the changes AI is already bringing to companies. At present, managers spend 54 percent of their time on administrative tasks like scheduling and logistics coordination. As artificial intelligence systems become increasingly capable of fielding appointment requests, responding to emails, and generating quarterly and annual reports, managers will be able to redirect their attention to richer, more challenging priorities.

Because today’s managers are still bogged down with administrative duties, they spend just 10 percent of their time on strategy and innovation and only 7 percent on developing their in-house talent and engaging stakeholders. AI improves that ratio, enabling managers to double the time they spend collaborating on new initiatives and investing in personnel and community development.

Managers should anticipate big changes as AI becomes integrated into their workflows. In addition to serving as leaders and facilitators, as they do today, they’ll find their analytical and decision-making skills called into sharper focus. Judgement work, which requires a keen understanding of data and its human impact, will become paramount. New skills will be needed and existing skills — like digital aptitude, creative thinking, data analysis, and strategic development — will be sharpened.

Our research suggests that super-managers in the age of AI will inhabit three distinct roles simultaneously, that of the empathetic mentor, the data-driven decider, and the creative innovator.

Freed from the mundanity of scheduling and logistics, managers will be able to devote more time to helping employees improve their skills. We know that AI will change the way many different departments work, so team members will need to adapt through tech training and rethinking the ways they can contribute to the company. Leaders will need to hone their “outcentric” management skills to advance their team’s development, meaning that they’ll need to nurture employees’ abilities in order to ensure everyone is actively contributing. In a sense, managers will become skills assessment experts, identifying workers’ strengths and molding employees into more well-rounded team members.

Managers will also become both students and teachers of AI systems. In a recent survey of 4,000 workers across the U.S., U.K., and Germany, the majority said they felt underprepared to fully leverage AI’s benefits. They expressed optimism that technology will make their workplaces more collaborative and will strengthen relationships among team members. But they’ll need their managers’ guidance to maximize the tools that are rapidly becoming available to them.

While not all managers will hold explicitly technical roles, they’ll still need to learn how to approach AI technologies like machine learning as “non-technical” leaders. Then they’ll have to train their colleagues to use those tools. At the very least, they’ll need to connect the dots between what AI platforms can do and how those functions correspond to the team’s goals. As companies transition to using AI assistants for data entry and scheduling, managers may need to engage in some handholding to help employees adapt to their new workflows.

While we know that AI-powered companies can become rich environments for learning and innovation, change isn’t always easy.